Abstract

This book analyses the diverse historical and geographical circumstances in which audiences have viewed American cinema. It looks at cinema audiences ranging from Manhattan nickelodeons to the modern suburban megaplex, and from provincial, small-town or rural America to the shanty towns of South Africa.

Going to the Movies studies the social and cultural history of movie audiences. Ranging broadly across historical time and geographical place, it analyses the role of movie theatres in local communities, the links between film and other entertainment media, non-theatrical exhibition and trends arising from the globalisation of audiences. There is an emphasis on movie-going outside the American North-East, and several chapters analyse the complexities of race and race formation in relation to cinema attendance

‘Going to the Movies provides a fascinating range of consistently well-written chapters by a good selection of the best film historians on both sides of the Atlantic.  With 68 pages of detailed references and an excellent index, this book is highly recommended for film research libraries and those with a serious interest in historical movie-going studies.’  (Media International Australia, No. 129, November 2008)

‘this excellent collection’  (Stuart Hanson, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2011)

Richard Maltby is Professor of Screen Studies at Flinders University, South Australia. His publications include Hollywood Cinema, Dreams for Sale: Popular Culture in the Twentieth Century and ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange, 1925-1939, which won the Prix Jean Mitry for cinema history in 2000.

Melvyn Stokes teaches at University College London, where he organises the annual Commonwealth Fund Conference on American History. His edited books include Race and Class in the American South since 1890, The Market Revolution in America, and The State of U. S. History.

Robert C. Allen is Professor of American Studies, History, and Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture, which was awarded the Theatre Library Association's George Freedley Memorial Award. He is the co-author with Douglas Gomery of Film History: Theory and Practice, and the editor of two editions of Channels of Discourse: Television and Contemporary Criticism.